I feel cheated by the weather. I am still waiting for the golden Polish autumn, which is my favourite season, and I have misgivings that this year I will not get it at all. A few faint sunny moments can't replace the powerful autumn high, which warms the air and paints the trees golden and red. Instead we have a depressing, rainy low, changing the beautiful, rustling leaves into not so beautiful mud.

If the weather doesn't help us, we need to find another way. Good, fragrant coffee, meeting friends, a shopping spree – choose something for yourself. I have an offer for people who need good, sweet food to make their day. I invite you to enjoy a very chocolaty oreo cake. The recipe comes from www.kulinarnamaniusia.pl.

Ingredients (15cm cake tin):
dough
100 g of flour
1 egg
60g of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of natural yoghurt
40ml of oil
40ml of milk
80g of dark chocolate
1 teaspoon of baking powder
6 oreo cookies

Even though I would like to change the situation, the winter is coming. Sooner or later there will be sharp winds, frost and unpleasant moisture. I don't know how you like to warm up at home, but on the first cold day I dust off my home recipe for hot and yummy winter teas.

You can use my recipe or come up with your own proposals for fiery mixtures. Only one thing should be the same: your favourite tea must be strong and hot.

Ingredients (for 2 teas)
Raspberry-orange
8 cloves
a piece of cinnamon
2 grains of cardamom
4 slices of orange
2 teaspoons of honey
your favourite tea
50ml of raspberry juice or 30ml of raspberry juice and 30ml of raspberry liqueur

Once, when I planned pancakes for dinner, I always used to think about potato pancakes. I prepared them with onion and pepper and served them with sugar or cream. A few years ago, when I was carving a Jack O' Lantern, I made pumpkin pancakes for the first time. I prepared them like potato pancakes, but they were milder, and we liked them so much that we forgot about potato ones for a long time.

Today I prepared these yummy and very simple pancakes. I used butternut squash, which is my new favourite food. You can prepare the fig preserve from fresh fruit. We brought some excellent fig preserve back from our summer holiday. It went very well with these summer pumpkin pancakes. For anyone who doesn't like fruit in their pancakes, I recommend maple syrup or natural yoghurt.

Ingredients (for 20 pancakes)
600g of peeled pumpkin
half an onion
5 tablespoons of flour
2 eggs
salt and pepper
oil for frying

Herrings with potatoes is a very painful memory of the school canteen for many of us. Though we like herrings with onion, I rarely serve it for dinner. Today I decided to break this rule and prepared herrings for dinner. I served herrings and potatoes once again, but in a completely different way.

I served baked jacket potatoes. The herrings were excellent with cream sauce and onion, apple and dill pickles. See for yourself if you like this way of preparing herrings.

Ingredients (for 2 people)
6 potatoes
2 tablespoons of olive oil
200g of herrings in oil
200g of 18% cream
1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
1 tablespoon of mustard
half an onion
1 apple
3 dill pickles
2 tablespoons of minced dill

Today the children will have to forgive me, but adults also sometimes want a little pleasure. This is a recipe for people who don't have to drive a car or work, i.e. for lucky people or those who can rest at the weekend. Irish coffee is a drink made with strong coffee, Irish Whiskey, whipped cream and brown sugar. It is excellent on cold days. I recommend it after an autumn walk or when the lack of sun really gets you down. Basically, you can spike the coffee with any whiskey, but in my opinion Jameson Irish Whiskey is the best for this drink.

If you don't like whiskey, instead you can prepare another kind of spiked coffee: French coffee – with brandy, Spanish coffee – with sherry, or Jamaican coffee – with dark rum.

Ingredients (for 2 drinks)
300ml of strong, hot coffee
40ml of Jameson Irish Whiskey
150ml of 30% sweet cream
4 teaspoons of coarse brown sugar
1 teaspoon of caster sugar
4 drops of vanilla essence